WildStar Composer Talks Music

The folk over at Carbine Studios have started to drip out snippets of information thanks to the new 'WildStar Wednesday' feature, having previously talked about the monster Metal Maw that was designed with help from the fans, and a brief bit of lore about the MMO’s setting on the planet Nexus. Late last night the blog on the official website updated for this week’s offering, this time giving centre stage to Lead Composer Jeff Kurtenacker to discuss the influences for the music of WildStar.

In the post, Kurtenacker talks about the process he goes through to ensure soundtrack blends with the elaborate setting of the upcoming MMO.

You already know that WildStar looks amazing, with content that is rich and deep, and lore that is epic and fantastical, so believe me when I say that every time I start to compose something for the game, I am striving to reach a benchmark that has already been set by the talented group here at Carbine. I'm looking for musical ways to help enhance each zone of our game. WildStar is the marriage of everything we love about science fiction and fantasy. So it makes sense that the music reflects that. I'm combining elements of electronica (for the sci-fi), orchestral (for the epic adventure/fantasy), and for experiences like the Northern Wilds, a dusty-outlaw-guitar-pickin'-spur-rattlin'-tobacco-chewin'-gun-slingin' music. It's the blend of all these things together that creates a solid WildStar score.

In addition to the blog you can find two audio samples of the soundtrack, titled "What We Now Call Home" and "Justice Doesn't Always Wear A Badge", posted on the page that has the musician in me rather excited. You can read the entire entry at the link here.